


i can't remember how you say that in italian, but i could perform a sonnet for you right now

by purplesucculent



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: F/F, Just Lots and Lots of Fluff, M/M, Modern AU, actor!joe, because I said so, but hey it was a fun saturday night at 2am, i just had this idea and it went too far, teacher!nicky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26551720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplesucculent/pseuds/purplesucculent
Summary: Joe's an actor. Nicky's a teacher. They meet cute, kinda, fall in love and move in together. Joe gets famous. Nicky's students get nosy. The public want to know who Nicky is, whilst his students want to find out who Joe is.aka the au nobody asked for but i gave u anyway :)
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Quynh | Noriko, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 41
Kudos: 404





	i can't remember how you say that in italian, but i could perform a sonnet for you right now

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be a cute little 2k fic but somehow ended up becoming this monster. so, i hope you enjoy!
> 
> i was inspired by these two fics, so check them out because this it literally the result of me going hey what if they were like... combined.
> 
> Joe's an Actor AU: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26467981/chapters/64493635  
> Nicky's a YouTuber AU: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26218549/chapters/63810469

**Florence**

**November 2015**

Nicky had always been in awe of Joe’s acting talent. Like, seriously, the man was a fucking modern marvel. He’d brought entire rooms of people to tears one moment, then the next had them rage with fury. He was amazing. Nicky was a proud boyfriend.

The first film he’d seen of Joe’s was one of his earlier films, however, the film he'd ended meeting Joe over was a small, independent production, circling on outcasts lives as they move abroad and something inevitably goes wrong, like, catastrophically. (Think: major crimes unit wouldn’t even be enough to cover the shit that happened to the characters.) Abroad happened to be Italy in this case and as Nicky still lived there, he’d met Joe whilst he was filming.

They’d met in a bar after both of them had finished a particularly hard day of work. Both not in the mood to even look another person in the eye, hell predictably broke loose once a sleep-deprived Nicky spilled his drink on an over-worked Joe. They’d argued extensively until the early hours of the morning and it was then that they began to realise just how much the other was extremely good company. Joe relented first, offering to walk Nicky home since his _“fucking car is broken! I’m having to walk everywhere! I can’t stand it, Joe”_ , and as a result Nicky had instantly become smitten at Joe’s offer, replying with a wistful _'yeah'._

The walk home had ended up becoming an excuse to unashamedly flirt with each other, walking closer and closer to the other as they drew nearer to Nicky's home.

Once they’d finally reached Nicky’s apartment, he’d invited Joe in and the two fell asleep in each other’s arms after even more hours of talking and soul-bearing and flirting. Upon awaking, they decided they could, would and should definitely try dating. They both felt a connection to the other – one they couldn’t quite explain, but both vehemently felt. They didn’t care that Joe was only working in Italy for few more months, that the relationship might not last long – the feelings they felt right then and there were enough for them to feel it was right. They were right. They were meant to be together. They’d just have to figure things out as they came. Nicky was happy with that as long as he could fall asleep with his nose pressed into his lover’s chest, breathing in his scent, as gentle fingers ran through his hair and gentler still Arabic lullabies were murmured into his hair.

At the time he’d met Joe, he’d taught English to Italians at a school just outside of Florence. Whilst the students he taught were generally stroppy teenagers, they somehow actually loved him and actively took part in all of his lessons – which was a shocking revelation for him as from what he remembered as a teenager, they don’t want to do shit. For anybody. Ever. (He _thinks_ they liked his YouTube videos.)

Nicky often published YouTube videos to help his students: ranging from vlogs in English to grammar and vocabulary lessons. It turned out to be really helpful for his students, plus, they liked to get to know him better.

Especially when they found out about Joe.

**Florence**

**April 2016**

Joe, after he had finished working on the film, had decided to stay in Italy with Nicky. After all, he had no other work lined up for a while and when his manager next found a job for him, he’d for sure check that out, but for now, he couldn’t bear to leave his Nicolò. They’d been together for six months, so Joe thought it was appropriate to stay for his love and subsequently moved into Nicky’s apartment.

Anyway. Since Joe had stayed, Nicky had made a few vlogs for his channel. Joe had made a few elusive appearances in a couple of these, mostly by speaking to Nicky off camera, or appearing out of focus or fuzzy in the background and the kids had taken note, asking Nicky one day who this guy was.

“ _Professore_! Nicolò!” One of the girls, Martina, called whilst the group were supposed to be studying verbs.

Nicky looked up from the books he was marking, over at his desk at the front of the room and pushed his hair out of his face.

“ _Sì_ , Martina?”

“Who is that man in your videos? The vlogs you make?” Martina asked, her friend next to her blushed and muttered something like _‘I didn’t think you were actually going to ask! Oh my god! Martina, what the fuck?’._

Nicky smiled and looked down at his desk, fiddling with his pen he looked back up. The rest of the class had payed attention now.

“Ah, that is Joe.” He answered, looking over to a photo of him and his boyfriend he kept next to his computer screen. Next to that photo was one of Nicky’s childhood dog and sister at a beach in Malta.

Martina smiled, looking to her friend and taking her hand under the table. Her ‘friend’, Nina, blushed again. As bright as a fucking tomato.

“Is Joe the man you have a photo of on your desk?” She asked, pushing slightly because she knew Joe was more than just Joe. She didn’t want to make her teacher uncomfortable, but it would be really cool to have a queer teacher, someone in her life that she could look up to that was just like her. It felt more real that way rather than just having a celebrity, for example, to look up to and recognise.

“Yes, he is. He is my partner,” He said, pausing then, to scrunch up his face in thought, “No, that wouldn’t be fair to say. He’s my everything, really. And more. All that and more.”

**London**

**February 2018**

Over the past couple of years, whenever Joe had received a job, he’d travelled to wherever they were filming to stay there for the few months that they often took. This had meant he’d had to spend gruelling months away from Nicky, who had to stay in Italy for his teaching job for most of the duration of his love's jobs. (Joe enjoyed his summer jobs the best, as Nicky could often stay with him for weeks on end.)

Anyway - Joe had taken a new job, this time he needed to be in London. He was going to be the main actor for a British social-realist film, this time circling the lives of young queer people in modern Britain. It was, at the same time, a hard-hitting drama and emotionally uplifting - Nicky had read the script, he knew this one was going to be fucking incredible.

Upon deciding to take the job, Joe knew he would have to leave Nicky for months as he filmed again and so, having been together for just over three years, he had suggested that Nicky come with him this time. Maybe they could start a life together somewhere new.

Nicky, coincidentally, had been offered a job teaching Italian for a British secondary school that had done some work with his Italian school in the past, so he was all set to follow Joe. He wouldn’t have to leave him this time. He never wanted to leave him again, really.

The two had managed to rent an apartment in London. Well, not rent per se as it was being paid for by Joe’s employers, (it would be a fucking miracle to rent anything in London for a reasonable price,) and the only reason Joe’s employers had managed to rent him and Nicky and apartment for at least the next six months was because the film had been picked up by Netflix. (Nicky knew that the film would blow up: people loved gay shit on Netflix, especially when actors such as Joe were _that_ fucking good at their jobs.)

The two settled into a steady rhythm: Joe filming most days of the week whilst Nicky worked at the school, producing Italian content, this time, for his YouTube channel. They were impressed by how quickly they’d been able to adapt to their new life and extremely happy about it, too – they thought they’d found a more permanent home: Joe enjoyed the film scene in London and Nicky enjoyed teaching his students – these ones were slightly harder to motivate to learn foreign languages since, you know, they were English and hadn’t been encouraged, but hey – once they got into it, they loved him.

They loved his videos even more.

Nicky had started doing more vlogs, this time in Italian, both for his English students to have more exposure to the language and everyday vocabulary but also for his family – they’d wanted to keep in touch and see what he was doing - what better way than them directly seeing his days? He didn’t want to sound rude, but he was a busy man, he didn’t always have time to have four-hour long phone calls with his mother every Saturday. That was date night most weeks. _Mi dispiace, mamma._ Sorry, mom.

**_Come shopping with me! (vocabolario per cibo)_ **

_Uploaded: 9 February 2018_

_19,000 Views_

“Are you recording, Yusuf?”

“I think- fuck, yes, go!”

_“Ciao a tutti! Benvenuto o bentornati!_ Today we are going shopping! Extremely exciting. Clearly. But hopefully you can get used to some vocabulary for food, no? _Andiamo!_ Let’s go!”

Cut.

“As you know, I am teaching Joe Italian since he’s not yet fluent. He has gotten much better over the past year, however – I think it’s only because he misses Italy. Anyway, in return he’s teaching me Arabic, so, hey, at least I get something out of this hard labour- _Ehi_!” Nicky said laughing as Joe playfully barged into him.

“You love me teaching you Arabic!” Joe laughed from off screen, as the video now refocussed on Nicky himself.

“-So, as I was saying, he is coming with us so he can learn all things food. A fantastic idea which came from my mother, actually. _Grazie mille, mamma._ ”

Cut.

Nicky and Joe had entered the supermarket. One that strongly resembled Aldi, but one couldn’t be sure.

Nicky pointed the camera at his and Joe’s shoes as they passed into the first aisle, then turning it to catch under his chin.

“What are you going to cook for me tonight, _cuore mio_?”

“I think, I will go for…” Pausing for a moment, Joe could be heard muttering something off camera as Nicky face filled the frame with a shit-eating grin covering his face.

“You will go for?”

“[Redacted], I can’t remember it in Italian!” Joe giggled, as Nicky turned and laughed at him, "How about I give you a great sonnet instead?"

  * **_Pause_**



****

****

**Comments:**

**glitterdish:** this shit’s so fucking sweet I can’t. where’s my slice of life Italian teacher? I’ve just got a menopausal wench for a French teacher and an increasingly unhinged man for a German teacher.

**FloraDaniels:** I promise you I actually learnt something this week, Sir. Please don’t fail me on the verbs test next week!!!

**markymarkymark:** anyone else wondering who this joe is??? why do we never see him properly!

 **ShaunaSimon:** He told us in lesson Joe’s camera shy! ~~(Somehow, I don’t believe that)~~ We won’t be seeing him on here anytime soon, I’m afraid **@markymarkymark**

**GeorgieB:** Sir, you’ve got to tell us about Joe more in lesson! No shade, but it would be way more interesting!!! Plus, we’d learn more! Remember? We all learnt how to say my heart, life, soul, love, etc… Plenty of useful vocab!

**London**

**February 2019**

It was premiere night for Joe’s new film. They'd finished filming it a few months after he and Nicky had made the " _Come shopping with me_ " video - Joe had stayed to help his new friends Andy and Quynh in the post-production phase of the film, he really felt this one was special, and since they'd let him, he'd wanted to stay and help. Anyway. He was, understandably, extremely fucking nervous. Like, bouncing his leg so fucking fast Nicky had placed one hand on said bouncing knee, the other on his face and placed a soft kiss to his lips, murmuring, ‘I love you, Joe. I’m so excited for you. Tonight, will be fantastic,’ as Joe fought the urge to close his eyes and nestle into Nicky’s side - that would have to wait until later because if he did, he wouldn’t move for the rest of the night. And they were, after all, in the middle of a tube carriage. The fucking London Undergound. At rush hour. (Well, it wasn’t technically ‘rush hour’ but most hours on the tube consisted of an alarming stream of people reaching a number which anywhere else in the country would amount to ‘rush hour’.) So, Netflix had decided they’d pay for his place to live for over a year in central London but not for a fucking car to take them to the premiere? _What the ever-loving fu_ -

“Hey,” Nicky said, nudging his head into Joe’s shoulder, “It’s okay, my love, it’s okay.” Taking his hand off Joe’s knee and placing it in his hand instead, Nicky began rubbing his thumb over the back of his hand. “And if it’s not okay, I have the next week off work so we can cry over it.”

Joe mustered out a giggle, placing his hand over Nicky’s, but not before bringing his hand to his lips for a short kiss.

“Yeah, yeah okay.”

As Joe and Nicky arrived at the premiere, much to Joe’s surprise, he was being pulled over for interviews for various online news and entertainment outlets. (This was _crazy_. This was the first time a film Joe had been a part of had garnered attention like this.) With Nicky smiling encouragingly behind him, he headed over to the first one.

The woman beckoned him over with a comforting smile, grabbing her microphone up from the chair that it was resting on, which was placed at the edge of the red carpet.

“Hello, Mr Al-Kaysani! My name is Becky, I work for a part of _Entertainment Weekly,_ would I be alright to ask you a few questions?”

Joe smiled - she seemed polite enough.

“Of course, ask away, Becky.”

“So, I see this is one of your first major roles – well, major in the sense that a large, possibly global audience will see this film, are you excited for that?” She asked, pointing the microphone in his direction, the camerawoman now focussing on him instead of Becky.

Joe looked back at Nicky momentarily, who was smiling softly right back at him, before turning back around to gulp nervously.

“Uh, yeah, I am excited but also maybe three seconds away from throwing up nervously, too. So, yeah, lots of emotions! I’m more excited that this story itself is going to reach so many people – it’s an important story to tell. I’m glad Netflix picked ‘Home’ up actually, it’s a great medium for people to access it on – especially if they are unable to see such a queer-orientated film at the cinema, for instance.” Joe replied, falling into a rhythm as he continued, nervousness floating away.

“It certainly is. Your co-stars Nile Freeman and Sebastian LeLivre have also been incredibly vocal about this empowering-”

The interview continued on, mainly with questions about the film, his co-stars, directors, and experience on set, until one question struck him.

“-and, can I ask, who is that handsome man you’re here with tonight, Joe?” Becky finished, smiling at him expectantly.

Joe turned to look at Nicky who had heard the question and nodded, giving him permission to potentially blow up his entire teaching career. They had been together for four years at this point, so Joe was not worried about the stability of their relationship – he was confident - but Joe didn’t want to lie. He didn’t think he could lie. Nicky was his fucking soul – there was no dancing around that, and so he turned back around to Becky with a lovesick smile plastered on his face.

“That’s my love. That’s my Nicolò.” He breathed.

“That’s so sweet! Is he your boyfriend?” Becky asked, still with a genuinely kind smile on her face.

“He’s my everything. All and more, Becky.” And with that, the interview was brought to a close and he sauntered off in a daze back over to Nicky, falling into his embrace as a few cameras snapped behind them.

**March 2019**

- ** _BBC – Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review Podcast: Scythia Wives’ New Film, Oscar Contenders, Favourite 90s Films with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder_**

****

**_Mark_ ** _: Honestly, this was incredible. The main actor, Joe Al-Kaysani, was fantastic. He kept you drawn to screen, rigid with anticipation to see what he was going to do next!_

**_Simon:_ ** _He must have been fantastic, Mark, for you to have praise for a Netflix film._

**_Mark_** _: I’m as surprised as you, Simon_ -

- ** _Sight and Sound Magazine: Issue #390_**

****

_Alongside outstanding performances by BAFTA Award Winning Nile Freeman and last year’s promising new talent Sebastian LeLivre, was hidden gem Joe Al-Kaysani, whose incredible performance brought tears of sorrow, anger, and joy to-_

_- **TotalFILM Magazine: April**_

****

**_Aminah:_ ** _I’ve been a fan of The Scythia Wives’ work for a while now. Andy’s directing is incredible as always, just as Quynh’s cinematography never fails to bring out the best of what her wife is looking for in an actor’s performance. I wanted to know how it felt to work with these arthouse legends, Joe?_

****

**_Joe_ ** _: It was one of the best experiences I’ve had as an actor. That was probably between a mix of getting to work with Andy and Quynh – we’re all good friends now actually – and having Netflix pay for mine and my boyfriend’s apartment for the year. I’d known London rent prices were insane, but I’d never expected living there to be that much fucking money-_

Joe’s film had blown up and so had he as a result. Nicky had never been prouder as people were finally realising Joe’s talent for what it was.

The whirlwind attraction of the film had been absolutely insane. Joe’s followers on his ‘professional’ Instagram account had rocketed from just under ten thousand to over seven hundred and fifty thousand in a few short weeks. There were rumours of possible Oscars and BAFTAs and Sundance and Cannes and Venice awards, not just for the film, but for Joe, too. _(_ _For Joe!)_

Whilst this was all great, it was becoming a bit overwhelming. Joe had been getting role offers from the some of the biggest names in film, as well as the people he grew up admiring. (He’d decided to stay on with Andy and Quynh for their next film they already had planned, whilst Booker and Nile had taken up a couple of bigger opportunities for the experience. They were all officially, and in professional terms, Hot Shit.)

There was no rest for Nicky or Joe just yet, though: Joe had to go on a press tour of Europe subsequently having to leave Nicky behind working for the next six or seven weeks. The barely even qualifying as a sentence "Shit." was the only thing capable of expressing Joe's emotions towards that.

They were lying in bed together on their sides, face to face. Nicky had one hand cupped around Joe’s cheek as the other traced down his lover’s side. Joe leaned into the touch, reciprocating by leaning his head forward and onto Nicky’s chest, pressing his lips against his sleep-warmed skin and bringing his arms up and around Nicky’s back.

“I don’t want to leave you, my heart.” Joe murmured, causing Nicky’s skin to tingle where Joe’s lips were pressed up against him. Moving his head down slightly, Nicky pressed a long kiss on Joe’s head, bringing his arms around tighter. “I will miss you. You are my soul, Nicolò.”

“As you are mine, Yusuf.” Nicky replied, brushing his hand through his lover’s curls, thoughtfully. “Let’s do something special when you return.”

“Anything is special as long as I am with you.” Joe said, with so much sincerity Nicky nearly started to cry.

“How about we go to Malta?” He whispered. “I… I went there as a child with my family. With my sister, before… they were some of the best times of my life, Yusuf.”

Nicky had told Joe about his sister years ago. She’d died when he was still quite young. Nevertheless, Nicky loved telling stories of her and the rest of his family – just as much as Joe loved hearing them. He brought his arms even further up, even tighter than Nicky had for him moments ago, moving his head from Nicky’s chest, just enough so that he could press his forehead against his love’s.

“Let’s go to Malta.”

Joe had left two weeks ago and so; Nicky had thrown himself into his work. When he wasn’t FaceTiming Joe, he was marking students’ work, laminating resources, and making new YouTube videos.

_Four more weeks until Malta. Four more weeks until Malta. Four more weeks until Malta._

That was both Nicky and Joe’s mantra for getting them through the next month. It was, as ridiculous as it is to admit, painful, the time they spent apart from each other. So much so, both of them had decided that they were to propose to the other whilst they were in Malta – it was only right. A love such as theirs didn’t need an institution to recognise it for them to feel complete, but the thought of belonging to each other forever, bound by vows carved from delicate pieces of the heart and tears of the soul? That, they definitely wanted. And needed. _Per favore, Dio mio, adesso._ Now, please God.

Anyway. Nicky was currently teaching a class of Year 11s and preparing them for their, alarmingly close, GCSE exams.

“I hope you all have your- yes, that’s it, your mock exam papers to revise from. Please get used to the exam question structure. Remember, they like to catch you out with the wording so you must read extra carefully, yes? Ok, thank God.” Nicky blurted out, falling back into his spinny chair, sighing. “You can talk amongst yourselves, it’s Friday, we’ve only five minutes left.”

“Sir?”

“Yes, Mahira?” Nicky said, rubbing his eyes. He was tired. He’d spent all night on the phone with Joe asking him about his day – he was in Italy at the moment and had gone to visit Nicky’s family. (They’d all met before at extremely interesting Christmas dinners. Their last meeting together was over FaceTime – they hadn’t had enough time between shooting to go over to Italy, so they had stayed in the UK and made a short trip to see Joe’s family who were currently in France, though most of whom lived in the Netherlands, instead.)

“What happened to Joe in your videos? He hasn’t been in your last few.” The girl asked. It had become a thing with Nicky and his Year 11s: they all asked him about Joe. Mostly to get out of doing work because Nicky, bless him, would immediately forget what he was teaching and talk about Joe for fifteen minutes at the absolute minimum.

“Nothing happened to him. He’s just away for work at the moment.”

“Ah, is that why you look awful, Sir?” Another kid, Scott, piped up. Nicky chuckled.

“Yes, I suppose it is.”

The class didn’t know what Joe’s job was or who exactly Joe was but it hadn’t happened on purpose – Nicky had just never mentioned it - completely by accident.

“What _is_ Joe’s job? Why does he have to work away? Is he a businessman or something?” Izzy, a kid sat at the back, asked.

“Oh no, he’s an actor. He’s doing press stuff – that’s why he’s away, currently.” Nicky sighed wistfully, a couple of kids in the front row snickered at their lovesick teacher, he was almost as bad as the Year 9s in their first relationships. “But when he comes back, we’re going to Malta." _I’m going to propose to him_ , he thought.

**_tumblr.com_ **

**Tags: - >** **Search: Joe Al-Kaysani**

**_kaysanikaysani:_ **

_we all still wondering who the mysterious bf joe keeps mentioning in interviews is?_

_125 notes_

**_georgialovesjoe:_ **

_(Depicted is a GIF Set of Joe in a recent interview where he was talking about Nicky)_

_JUST LOOK AT THAT MAN’S FUCKING SMILE AS HE MENTIONS HIS BF!!! I AM ACTUALLY GOING TO DIE!! HE CALLS HIM HIS MOON WHEN HE’S LOST IN DARKNESS I-_

_391 notes_

**_yusufnotjoeak:_ **

_(Depicted is another GIF Set of Joe talking about Nicky and his family’s home in Florence)_

_THE BF IS ITALIAN? DOES THIS NARROW OUR SEARCH DOWN, FOLKS?_

_54 notes_

**_carlamarlow:_ **

_(Depicted is a poster for Joe’s film ‘Home’)_

_I just finished watching The Scythia Wives’ new movie and Joe Al-Kaysani is the best thing I’ve seen in a while._

_(Keep Reading)_

_33 notes_

**_joejoejoeykaysani:_ **

_not to be a total fucking creep… but I dug up photos from the very first shoot for “Home”, you know, the film that got us all obsessed with this man… and I think I may have found the bf…_

_(Depicted are a set of six photos of Joe during the Entertainment Weekly interview he did for the film. In the background of them, Nicky can be seen walking away from Joe as he takes his place for the interview, his hand brushing the small of his back as he began to walk further away.)_

_1,063 notes_

**_elliebelly reblogged joejoejoeykaysani’s post:_ **

_[not to be a total…_

_]_

**_elliebelly:_** hahaha lmao I think my Italian teacher’s boyfriend is that actor everyone’s simping over, wouldn’t that be fuckin wild.

****

2,459 notes

**_Notes Comments:_ **

**_fionasucks:_ ** _SAY SIKE RIGHT NOW WHAT THE FUCK!_

**_bazhazhandz:_ ** _dude, r u serious? That’s fuckin crazy_

**_kaysaniyusufkaysani:_ ** _…_

**_whoiskaysanisbf:_ ** _………………NO FUCKING WAY? WHY DOES IT MAKE SENSE THO?_

 **_saaniyahcantdraw:_ ** _**@whoiskaysanibf** things about joe that just make sense_

**_hazeljones:_ ** _I think OP is telling the truth… I watch a guy who looks really similar to GIF Set dude’s YT channel to learn Italian… he looks super similar to the bf in those pictures…_

Ellie hadn’t thought what she’d thought was actually true. Holy shit. She stared in disbelief at a photo set that definitely depicted her teacher next to this actor guy. Plus, she wasn’t the only one who had thought it was Nicky. For some reason, it all added up. It all made sense. _(Why?)_

Fuck. She didn’t want Nicky getting harassed. She’d only said it as a joke. Shit. Hopefully he’d be ok. Let’s hope all his other socials weren’t as out there as his YouTube channel. The channel was nearing 170k – so, it probably wasn’t totally her fault. Someone was bound to find out sooner or later... right?

**April 2019**

-“and with the recent and monumental success of “Home”, how do you plan to celebrate?” The interviewer had asked Joe, who was now, somewhere in… Belgium? Oh no, that was yesterday. Today they were in… France. Yes, that’s it. Paris - Booker was happy as he’d got to catch up with some of his family. The last stop before he could return to Nicky. His home.

Returning from his momentary zoning out (aka Nicky daydream time - a regular feature in Joe's brain), Joe made a considering noise. He was so fucking tired. To tell you the truth, he hadn’t been sleeping well without Nicky. Like, it was ridiculous at this point, he was thirty-three entire years old-

“So, no plans with celebrating then, Joe?” The interviewer forced him out of another daze (fuck).

“Uh, yes actually,” He broke out into a grin, “I’m going to Malta with Nicky!” The string of interviewers that he’d been interviewed by over the past few weeks had been increasingly interested in Nicky, not that he’d minded, of course. Nothing was as great a pleasure than to be paid to talk about Nicky. Wow, he loved his job sometimes.

(Nicky hadn’t minded it either. He, truth be told, loved it when he looked at a new interview of Joe’s to see his love waxing poetic halfway through it and the interviewer slowly realising that perhaps Nicky wasn’t the best line of questioning if they wanted any actual content on the film Joe should have been promoting.)

“Ah! Nicky! The boyfriend! Will we ever get to meet him? Maybe one day? Or does he prefer to stay out of the limelight?”

Joe chuckled.

“Well, I did take him to the premiere, and I’ll probably take him to the next one too. He’s kind of shy but he,” He pauses to laugh, “Kind of loves the attention sometimes. Only because so far it hasn’t been overwhelming, so let’s see how long that lasts.”

The interviewer pulled out their phone and began to click around on the screen, bringing up a YouTube page.

“Now, we can totally cut this if this is too far – I completely understand. But it has come to my, and some of your fans' online attention, that the man in these videos, looks an awful lot like the Nicky you took to the premiere. Could this be Nicky? Or is it fans getting carried away?” The interviewer handed the phone over to Joe, and Joe was surprised to find that they had pulled up Nicky’s honest to god YouTube channel. It was the video they’d taken in the supermarket a while ago.

Joe hadn’t known what to do then, and as the interviewer had said: Was it too far? - He’d need to ask Nicky, or should just keep it as fan rumours? Oh boy.

Luckily, as he handed the phone back over to the interviewer, the people in charge had called time, and Joe put on his biggest smile which instead of screaming _'Thank you for this lovely interview!'_ actually screamed ' _Thank fuck I dodged that!'_

“I’m so sorry we’ve run out of time! It was nice chatting to you, Joe!”

**Nico**

_13:45_

They’ve found your YouTube channel, my love.

_15:34_

Who has?

My fans! I didn’t tell the interviewer

because we ran out of time. But isn’t that

fucking crazy?

Good for them, now they can learn Italian

with you!!!

Nicky laughed as he read the message Joe had sent him. Maybe he could play game with Joe’s fans. As well as his own viewers: they had been asking who Joe was for a while now, too. This could get interesting.

**Malta**

**Late April 2019**

Joe and Nicky had reunited at their London apartment, with just enough time to make up for the weeks spent apart and to pack their suitcases for the next two weeks in Malta. They’d headed off to Heathrow Airport the following morning.

Running on very little sleep due to the horrendously early flight time, Joe had fallen asleep, exhausted, draped over Nicky on the plane, whilst the other read, stroking his hand through his soon-to-be fiancé’s hair.

Once they had landed, they’d taken a taxi straight to their rented villa by the coast.

“Shall we go swimming?” A sleepy Joe who was curled into Nicky’s side asked, quietly.

“If you're not too sleepy, _cuore mio_.” Nicky responded, pressing a kiss onto his love’s cheek, tightening his arms and bringing him closer to his heart.

It was now late in the afternoon. Nicky and Joe had spent all of it down at the beach. Luckily for them, they’d found a private little alcove, secluded from the rest of the holiday-goers, and stayed there, relishing in each other’s company until it was time for dinner.

Giddily packing their things away, Joe and Nicky paused in between stuffing towels in this bag and books in that one to press kisses onto each other, wherever they could reach. Just as Nicky was finishing packing his bag, Joe came up behind him and picked him up, twirling him around in the direction of the sea. Nicky let out a startled laugh only to go dead weight in Joe’s arms, causing them both to fall over in fits of giggles.

They lay there, Nicky still in Joe’s arms, and listened to the rolling waves. Joe made to move his face closer to the back of Nicky’s neck, breathing him in.

“I’m so glad I found you.”

Nicky lifted his lover’s hand to his lips for a kiss, then moving it, kept it pressed against his heart.

It was nearing 8pm by the time they’d actually untangled themselves and left the beach to start the short walk back to their villa. By 9pm they’d untangled themselves again, this time long enough to get in a taxi to find a restaurant for dinner.

They’d found a place serving, well, everything really, but they’d opted to share a huge vegetable tagine so that they could sit next to each other as they ate, not wishing to move away for even a moment.

After they’d finished, Nicky suggested they walk back to their villa along the coastline – he loved the sounds of the ocean. Joe, willing to do anything for him, agreed, taking his lover by the hand and swinging their arms between them as they walked.

“I missed you,” Nicky whispered as they neared their villa, “So much.”

Joe turned to face him, bringing their foreheads together, overcome with emotion and only able to nod his head in agreement.

Nicky closed his eyes for a moment. Shit. He had planned to propose to Joe a couple of nights in – not the first one there. He’d wanted to take him out for the day then propose in the evening, but he felt it now. He felt he needed it now. He didn’t even have the ring with him but, nevertheless, he took Joe’s face in his hands and nudged his nose against his love's.

“Hey.”

“ _Ciao, bello._ ” Joe chuckled in response. Nicky’s grin grew even wider.

“Marry me?”

“No, you.” Joe responded with another laugh, moving his hand from Nicky’s neck to his pocket, pulling out a little square box and presenting it to Nicky with a grin.

The following days were spent between each other’s arms, at the beach, and a nice desert place they’d found on the main strip near to where they were staying. As their first week drew to a close, Nicky had the idea of uploading a vlog to document at least part of their time here.

**La nostra vacanza in Malta (vocabulario vacanze)**

_Uploaded: 15 th April 2019_

_Views: 300,562_

“ _Ciao tutti!_ _Come state?_ Today I am in Malta with my fiancé, Joe! And we’re going to show you our favourite places we have found so far!” Nicky began, the frame showing his face and the sea view from his and Joe’s bedroom window.

“We hope you enjoy the video! We love it here, so we wanted to show you some of our favourite places!” Joe added off camera, Nicky smiled up at him looking off to the right slightly.

Cut.

“So, here is this secret part of a beach we found. Joe found it whilst he was swimming on the first day.”

“I did. There were lots of shells in this one corner. Show them, _carino_.”

  * **_Pause_**



****

****

**Comments:**

**ScottyP:** Congrats, Sir!!!

**georgialovesjoe:** did anyone else see the interview where joe said he’d be going to malta with his bf for a ‘special getaway’ ???

 **joejoejoeykaysani:** @georgialovesjoe FUUUUUCK! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

**MichaMicha:**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**kaysanikaysani:** ive never wished to be fluent in italian my entire life, teach me good sire nicky!

**_twitter.com_ **

****

****

**_@buzzfeed:_**

_Joe Al-Kaysani Star of Netlfix’s_ Home _spotted with presumed fiancé in Malta!_

_(Depicted is a snapshot of Joe and Nicky sat at a restaurant. Joe is feeding Nicky some ice-cream as Nicky holds Joe’s free hand. They are both clearly wearing engagement rings.)_

**_Replies:_ **

**_@joestansjoe:_ ** _i’m going to fucking die_

**_@laurasaysshit:_ ** _I fucking knew it was that Italian youtube teacher guy_

**_@homemovie_official:_** _C_ _ongrats, guys! – Andy and Quynh_

**_@kaysanikaysani:_ ** _I think I’m a Nicky stan… what a king..._

_**@nickystan replied:** same_

_**@S.LeLivre:** What the fuck, Joe?_

Joe and Nicky had returned from Malta with fairly aggressive phone calls from their respective families, begging them to come and visit to plan the wedding.

_(“No, mamma! I cannot just get up and leave work! My students have exams this month!”_

_“Nicolò, you must! We must celebrate with you and your Yusuf!”)_

_(“Yusuf, when were you going to tell us about your Nicky? We find out you’re getting married from a… what was it, Sara? A twitter?”_

_“I rang you to tell you!? Maybe, three days after we proposed to each other!?”)_

But they had decided to leave planning for a while, they were content with where they were right now.

Anyway, since they’d returned, Nicky had face dozens of questions from his students about his fiancé, whilst Joe had been bombarded by some press outlets about his engagement. They’d also faced some teasing (bullying) from Andy and the gang for announcing it to them all via Nicky’s YouTube channel.

( _“I’m just saying, Joe, we’re all your good friends and we find out through your fiancé’s, who we don’t know very well mind you, YouTube channel? His YouTube channel.”_

_“Andy-_

_“No, she’s right. I found out from the reply she left on that buzzfeed tweet.”_

_“Booker, I swear to-”)_

Since the whole _“Why didn’t you tell anyone normally?”_ ideal, Nicky had gotten to know Andy and the gang much, much better. Joe had made the wise decision to introduce Nicky to his core friend group. He and Joe would often go on double dates with Andy and Quynh, whilst Nicky had also become good friends with Booker. Nicky and Nile would often meet for coffee as they both had a shared interest in art history – honestly, they could talk for hours, Joe had fallen asleep on Nicky during one of their conversations.

**Paris**

**August 2019**

Booker had invited them all to stay at his grandparents’ old house on the outskirts of Paris for the summer as nobody had anything planned, and they all deserved a good break for a little while.

It had been, so far, a fairly enjoyable break. Andy and Quynh kept to themselves most days and joined the rest of them in the evening, whilst Nile and Booker often took trips into Paris, Nile eager to explore what the city had to offer and Booker acting as a guide having grown up in the city. Nicky and Joe spent most of their days in bed or swimming in the outdoor pool.

Joe had taken to sketching Nicky whilst he wasn’t paying attention, often ending with Nicky scrabbling for his love’s sketch in admiration at his never-ending talents.

Afternoons they had free, Nicky often spent them making more Italian lesson videos – he hadn’t made vlogs for a while, yet Joe still ended up appearing in the majority of his videos, trying to help him with grammar questions people had sent in since his Italian had improved drastically over the summer. This was mainly because they wanted to speak to each other without the others knowing what they were saying – somethings were better left unheard, for the sake of their friend’s mental stability. They were in luck, however, as none of their friends had Italian as a language in common with them – Booker and Nile spoke French (which was just different enough that they got away with it), whilst Andy and Qunyh spoke Vietnamese, thank _god._

This evening, they were all going out to a local restaurant Booker knew the owner’s of. He’d known them since he was a child and often came frequently when he had visited his grandparents in the past, so they gave him a discount when he appeared with a trail of his friends behind him.

Nile had been checking her phone when she found out.

“Joe!” She squealed, pushing her phone and the article it was open on in his direction, across the table. He motioned for her to pass it to Nicky as he needed to wipe his hands – fucking muscles, why were they so slimy? As Nicky saw the headline for the article, he went rigid, grasping Joe’s forearm.

“Nicolò, my love, are you…” Joe trailed off as he read from Nile’s phone. “Holy shit.” Nicky turned to Joe and pulled his head to his chest, tears brimming in his eyes.

“I’m so proud of you.” Nicky said, punctuating his sentence by kissing the side of Joe’s face.

“Guys, I’m so confused, what’s going on?” Booker piped up, sat at the other end of the table. Andy and Quynh nodded in agreement, clasping each other's hands.

“He’s actually been nominated for the best actor Oscar!” Nile said with glee. They’d known about most of the other nominations they’d got, Nile getting a best supporting actress nomination, Booker a best supporting actor, whilst the film itself had received a couple of best picture nominations from the film festivals, but they hadn’t expected any of them really, much less an Oscar – the academy didn’t usually give a shit about films that mattered, holy _fuck_.

Andy and Quynh reached over to take Joe’s hands from where they lay around Nicky’s back, as Booker and Nile smiled like maniacs from where they were sat.

“We’re so proud of you, Joe.” Andy murmured, smile reaching her eyes and making them glow.

“You deserve this, so, so much.” Quynh added, stroking her hand down his back.

“Thank you, guys.” Joe managed to whisper. “I love you all.” He finished, talking into Nicky’s chest, as his fiancé nestled his head into the crook of his shoulder.

**_Epilogue_ **

****

**_Los Angeles_ **

**_February 2020_ **

“And the Oscar for best actor goes to…”

Joe grabbed his husband’s hand tight in his as he stared up at the stage in anticipation whilst Nicky leaned over placing a kiss on _his_ husband’s cheek, resting his forehead against Joe’s shoulder for a moment.

Andy, Quynh, Nile and Booker were seated around the rest of the seats at the table, clutching at each other, nervous smiles gracing their faces.

Joe could feel his heartbeat throughout his entire body, the longer and longer it took for them to open the envelope. _Why does it take so long to open a goddamn-_

“Joe Al-Kaysani for ‘Home’!”

He let out an impressive amount of obscenities before turning to face Nicky, who had taken his face in his hands and leaned in to press a passionate kiss against his lips. Not moving to let go of Nicky, he stood up, dragging his husband with him.

Laughing Nicky asked, “What are you doing?”

“You’re coming with me. There’s no way I would be here today if it wasn’t for you.” He replied, gazing at his _husband_ (!!!). “Andy! You guys! Come too! It's yours as much as it's mine!”

Pulling a laughing Nicky behind him, he jogged up to the stage and enveloped the hosts with a bone crushing hug. After, they stepped back and Joe returned to Nicky’s side. Nicky, as it happens, had taken a video of the whole thing on his phone finding it to be both one of the best days of their lives as well as the funniest (Joe had nearly knocked both of the hosts over at the same time).

As they handed over the award to him, Nicky looked on with pride – he’d known Joe was the best damn actor since the moment he’d first known him.

Joe turned to look back at Nicky, tears threatening to spill over as he took his place at the microphone to make his speech.

Yeah, Nicky was so fucking proud of him.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading, i hope you enjoyed!
> 
> kudos and comments always welcome!
> 
> <3


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